5 Wise Ways of Getting Huge While Staying Healthy

Originally published by Generation Iron.

Most gym noobs think the biggest bro in their gym is also the healthiest. Let me break it to you – that’s not always the case. Bodybuilding and health might be related but in no alternate universes are they synonyms.

Lifting hundreds of pounds every day and eating red meat in every meal might help you pop-out muscles and make you feel like Superman but this lifestyle is surely going to catch up to you in the long-run.

Most people make the mistake of treating weight training like flings. On the contrary, weightlifting and following a healthy lifestyle should be thought of as a marriage of two souls. You will need to put in the effort, it will feel boring, but if done right, it will lead to a happy and fulfilled life. Wow, that was deep!

It’s time we re-evaluate everything we think we know about lifting weights. Do we have to lift like Ronnie Coleman to get those bulky arms? Is it a good idea to put your joints, ligaments, and tendons under tremendous tension just so that you can flex once a month in front of your friends? Is there a better way of getting huge while staying healthy? There sure is, and we are going to take you through it in this article.

How to Get Huge

Intensity is the Name of the Game

If you’ve been working out for some time, there is a high probability you’ve been asked how much you can bench or squat? Whenever people see a buff dude, they automatically think he is auditioning for the role of Hulk.

People forget bodybuilding and powerlifting/weightlifting/strongman are different things. You don’t have to be able to lift refrigerators on your shoulders or pull a truck to build a V-taper and look swole in a shirt.

Your muscles have no idea how much weight is on the bar, only your ego does. Don’t get us wrong. We don’t mean you shouldn’t be aiming for PRs or challenging your muscles. All we’re saying is that if your goal is to build muscle mass, you’d get better results by annihilating your muscles in an intense workout as compared to lifting heavy for a couple of reps and not even breaking a sweat.

Your body is like a machine – the more load you put on it, the faster it is going to wear off. Don’t forget why deadlifts, squats, and bench presses are called functional exercises. If you’re losing your functionality and turning into a blob, you’re doing it all wrong.

Focus on Recovery

You start losing muscle when you step inside the gym. You heard it right. Your muscle cells break down when you do resistance training. Your muscle cells grow and rebuilt when you give them enough time to recuperate. To read the full article, click here.